Panchratan Dal or Panchmel Dal(Five Dal mixed in an equal portion)

P﻿﻿﻿anchratan Dal is a unique North Indian dish. It is exotic mixture of five different lentils cooked together and flavored with spices and onion, garlic, tomato and green chili tadka and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Directions for cooking dal:﻿1. In a pressure cooker add all the Dals and wash, changing water several times until the water appears clear and then soak dals in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes or longer.​

Add dals in pressure cooker

Wash and rinse the Dal’s

Soak Dal’s in water

Dal's are soaked

​2. Once Dal's are soaked rinse the water out and wash . Add 4 cups of water,Turmeric powder, salt and 1 teaspoon of oil and mix. When Dal is boiling it creates lot of foam and the foam comes out from pressure cooker to prevent that it is a good idea to add little oil.

3. Close the lid of the pressure cooker, place the weight on the lid and cook on medium high heat.

Add water, salt & Turmeric & mix

Close the Pressure cooker

4. In about 8 to 10 minutes pressure cooker will start steaming turn the heat down and cook for 7 to 8 minutes. Turn the stove off and wait until steam goes down. Different brand of cooker require different time to cook.

5. While dal is cooking prepare the onion and cumin seed tadka and keep themaside (see below for directions)

6. Open the pressure cooker and turn the stove on to medium heat, with the cooking spoon mix dal well so there are no lumps, if the dal is thick then add more water if it is too watery, then cook little longer.

Open the Pressure cooker

Mix Dal well

7. Add Onion, tomato tadka and mix and cook for 5 minutes.

8. Add cumin seed Tadka and cook for 1 minute and turn the stove of or until you have the desired consistency.

9. When ready to serve, transfer dal in a serving bowl and garnish it with coriander leaves and pour hot chili tadka over dal. (See below for chili tadka)

Add onion and tomato tadka

Add Cumin Seed Tadka

Panchratan Dal is ready

Panchratan Dal

﻿Tips:﻿

1. If you wish you can skip onion tadka or any other tadka and alter Dal to your taste.

2. Use pressure cooker for cooking dal otherwise it takes too long to cook dal. Direction for cumin seed tadka:(tadka)

1. In a small pan (tadka pan) heat 2 tablespoons ghee or melted butter add crushed red chilies or red chili powder and fry them on very low heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until the red chilies fried, turn the heat off.Direction for onion tadka:(tadka)

1. Heat small frying pan, add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, chopped onions and minced garlic and sauté them on medium high heat for 5 to 6 minutes or until onions become light brown, while frequently stirring them.

2. Add chopped tomatoes and chopped green chilies and cook. With the spatula try to mash the tomatoes so that they become soft quickly. In about 5 to 6 minutes tomatoes will become soft and blend with onions. Turn the stove off.

Please take the time to let me know what you think about my recipe. Your comments would be helpful to me to improve the recipe.Thank you Geeta Seth